Don’t Delete Facebook, Neuter It (in less than 5 minutes)
If you are like me, I love the fact that I am connected with just about everybody I have ever met in my life. I’d never know any of the things or still have contact with so many people from my life.
Beyond this, Facebook is garbage. The news is fake. The targeting is real. And their empathy about selling your personal information is wholly unbelievable – it is their business model.
Nobody can fix the damage done
The information about you is already out there. There is no way to ‘go out and get this data’. It is kind of like once you send a file as an attachment, your control of that file pretty much ends the second you hit SEND. It can be copied and redistributed a million times and not only could you not stop it, but you would also never know about it. Until Facebook makes or is forced to make, serious changes, what happened in 2016 can and will happen again.
Neuter the Beast
Facebook’s business model is based on letting advertisers reach YOU based on your personal data. Your personal data gives them your age, location, likes, dislikes, gender, political leanings, etc, etc. This is an advertisers dream and they are willing to pay a lot of money for this access. What can you do? While this isn’t a complete solution, you can change your settings and revoke Facebook’s permission to share this data. Frankly, it is still on the honor system. Facebook can do what they want (how are you going to prove otherwise), but if it gets to the point where the government gets involved, these setting will mean a lot.
Turn Off the Apps
One of the biggest ways that Facebook sells your data is through Apps. You know that window that comes up and says “Would you like to log in to Facebook’ – and you do it because it is quicker – this is where you give up your data. This can be shut off. Now realize, if you have apps that have accounts that were set up with the Facebook login, you are going to have to recreate these (or keep the apps active). I have always logged in to LoseIt and MapMyFitness through Facebook, so this will change the way I log into these accounts – just be aware of this.
Go to SETTINGS (top right) –> click on APPS (left side)
You are going to see the Apps dashboard. On the top will be all of the Apps that currently have access to your data. You will see apps from 5 years ago that you never use any more. They are still harvesting your data all these years later.
READ THE POP-UP DESCRIPTIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE TURNING ANYTHING OFF
1 – Apps, Websites and Plugins
If you click on the EDIT for the Apps, Website and Plugins, you will see the following pop up. This is the option to turn off the app info sharing platform. If you are OK will manually logging into all of the apps it listed above and you are not a developer or gamer, this is the quickest way to cut off your information to these companies.
2 – Games and App Notifications
Unless you play games on Facebook, there will be no downside to turning this off.
3 – Apps Others Use
If you have turned off the platform, technically you don’t need to change anything here. However, if you ever do need to turn it on for some reason, it would be good to have these deactivated by removing the check in the box (they can be turned on again as-needed).
4 – Old Versions for Facebook for Mobile
While this probably won’t apply to most, I would restrict it to “ONLY ME”.
Short of closing your account, you have now restricted the use of your data to one big area of Facebook clients. Understand, they are still selling your data, but just not through these apps. Also remember, the data that has already been sold is out there forever.
